


Losing Your Memory

by leobrat



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leobrat/pseuds/leobrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Call all your friends, tell them I'm never coming back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Losing Your Memory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tree/gifts).



> Happy holidays! My own personal canon for J/H cuts off way before the resolution for the show, and from your DYW letter, it seems as though the show's ending wasn't all that dear to you either. Hope you enjoy this, and it was fun to write!

Growing up happens in subtle ways that no one really notices, not while it’s happening. One day, they’re kids, ditching class and smoking pot, and all of sudden, they’re approaching their forties, revolving every conversation around the mortgage, car payments, arrangements for the kids to get to and from school, and whatever’s on sale at the grocery store. They do still have a joint once in a great while, though that’s dramatically decreased since John was in middle school. He got suspended for smoking cigarettes in the boys bathroom, and even Stephen found the connections between himself and his son a little too close for comfort.

Jackie’s life is far and away from the fourteen-year-old girl who first stepped into the Foremans’ basement all those years ago. She never would admit it, but she was scared to death as a freshman walking into that group. She basically went right from junior high to dating Michael and beer blasts and pregnancy scares and the only way she knew to have some sort of defensive wall around her was acting like a brat. Donna was no ally to her at first, at least as far as she could see, and she felt very alone.

But when Jackie meets people now, she generally introduces herself as a mother- as if that is the first and foremost part of her identity. She was, _God_ , twenty when John was born. Still a kid, really. She remembers saying to Stephen late in her pregnancy that she wanted the nurse to clean off the baby before she held him, but she held her bloody, wriggling, squalling baby boy against her sweaty chest for a good long while after he was born and they cried together. Somehow, even after nine months of pregnancy, everything changed in that one instant. And she never looked back. Everything was different after that.

After Julie was born, Stephen took John over to Kitty and Red’s for an afternoon to give him some attention time, all by himself. It was something of a rough transition for an eighteen-month-old to all of a sudden not be ‘the baby’ any more. Red was a surprisingly tender granddad to John, and as he patiently allows the toddler to use his model WWII replica fighter jets as toys, Red comments to Stephen that he’s a better father than Red ever was. 

In that moment, Red Foreman looks aged, frail in a way which Stephen had previously never thought of him, and it makes Stephen feel old. In a way he never thought he would be. “Stop it, Red,” he says, instead of saying _thank you_ (because to acknowledge it would be to confirm it, and it’s absolutely not true), and the subject is closed.

It’s ironic, when they reunite with the old gang for Stephen’s ten year high school reunion that they are the ones with the almost Norman Rockwellian existence. Michael was doing the best he could with two jobs to try to keep up with child support, and he spent every moment he could with Betsy. There were hardly ever any more ladies for Michael Kelso, and somehow (she didn’t know why) that fact made Jackie sad. Eric and Donna barely had time to catch their breath. They almost didn’t make it back to Wisconsin- busy with their foundation For Man (Donna was explaining it to Jackie, something about welling clean drinking water in developing countries, but Jackie couldn’t quite figure out how it worked, other than Eric and Donna on eight flights a week). And then there was Fez, the real surprise. He was the vice president and spokesperson of For Man. Eric sent the Hydes a video of Fez ( _Fernando_ , Jackie has to remind herself) speaking at an event and he’s so serious, so responsible, it’s like he actually _is_ a different person, and while the person he has become is great, he’s another reminder of how far things have changed.

Stephen and Jackie have never really left Point Place, not for any extended amount of time, and as much as the scenery is all the same, they are all completely different people from the teenagers who never left the basement and never stopped laughing.

Right before her fortieth birthday, Jackie has an epiphany.

Her daughter is just shy of fifteen herself (they’re both Scorpios, and with their birthdays only a few weeks apart, they usually have a big family party together), and she’s going through her first big heartbreak. In a big, BIG way. When the whole house woke up to the sounds of Julie sobbing on Thursday night, Jackie let her stay home from school on Friday (something she’d had to argue with Stephen about, which was ironic). She took her shopping and they went to see a romantic comedy, and Julie slept easy that night, even though Stephen has been up all weekend, somewhat nervously pacing in front of her door. He hasn’t slept much since the concept of Boys had become a thing with their daughter.

But in any case, Sunday has a way of making reality tap dance on everyone’s last nerve, and Jackie knows that Julie probably won’t exactly be _excited_ for school (but then again, she never is), but she’s not prepared for the six-year-old tantrum that she throws. That she’s not going, that _they can’t make her_ , that she’s going to transfer to boarding school (Stephen laughs at that from the hallway). At first, Jackie tries bribing her with one of the cute new outfits she has, and then trying to be understanding ( _honey, I understand that this is hard for you, but..._ ) but finally she’s had it and they are in a screaming match that ends with a slammed door and a vague promise that Julie will be grounded for an indeterminate number of weeks.

Jackie can hear her daughter sobbing from inside her room, and when Stephen pulls her into their own room, she finally lets her own sobs loose, silently shaking against him. 

“Hey, none of that now,” he says softly, stroking her hair over her shoulder and she doesn’t remember the last time he held her like that. “You remember how it was at that age, don’t you?”

Jackie says nothing in return, but holds him tighter.


End file.
